The search for Bin Laden narrows to 30 square miles.
Refugees fleeing skirmishes around Kandahar spoke of British and American special forces searching for Bin Laden in the mountains. One refugee said he had seen a British man questioning a Taliban deserter. Other Afghans crossing into Pakistan at Chaman said soldiers of western appearance were near the outskirts of Kandahar, a base for Bin Laden’s Al-Qaeda organisation as well as its Taliban hosts. Taliban and Al-Qaeda forces appeared yesterday to be preparing for last stands in the two cities still in their hands, Kandahar in the south and Konduz in the north. At Kandahar, tribal leaders opposed to the regime agreed to allow Taliban forces to leave the city but said thousands of Arabs, Chechens and Pakistani supporters of Bin Laden were staying to fight.
Thousands more were standing their ground in Konduz in the face of a Northern Alliance offensive expected today. They threatened to massacre civilians if the Alliance attacked.